U.N. Rejects Palestinian Resolution Seeking Israeli Withdrawal

The United Nations Security Council has rejected a Palestinian-backed resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from disputed territories by late 2017, with the United States voting against the measure and five other nations abstaining from the vote.

The resolution needed nine votes to pass. Eight members approved the resolution, the United States and one other country voted against it, and five other members, including the United Kingdom, didn’t vote.

United States Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, referred to the resolution as a "staged confrontation," and said it would not bring the parties closer to achieving a resolution. Power also stressed that today’s vote should not be thought of as a "victory for an unsustainable status quo" but as a "wake-up call."

The Palestinian resolution called for peace with Israel within a year, an end to what it called "Israeli occupation" by 2017, and a return to the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital of two "independent, democratic and prosperous states."